1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally concerns beacon management. More particularly, the present invention concerns locating beacons via location data of nearby mobile devices in proximity range of the beacon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entertainment and event venues such as theme parks, cruise ships, universities, arenas, concert venues, ski resorts, relaxation resorts, ice rinks, spas, skate parks, and stadiums typically have large numbers of visitors/guests. These venues typically have multiple “points of interest,” that correspond to locations of attractions, landmarks, or other noteworthy areas. Attraction points of interest may include locations associated with restaurants, cafeterias, concession stands, stores, libraries, theme park rides, pools, theatre shows, movies circus shows, animal shows, or costumed characters. Landmark points of interest may include locations associated with statues, sculptures, structures, trees, paintings, gardens, buildings, or natural formations. Other points of interest may include locations associated with restrooms, water fountains, entrances, exits, or crossroads. An area such as an attraction or a restroom may be associated with multiple points of interest. For example, a given area may correspond to a number of entrances and exits or to multiple points of sale such as cashiers or card readers.
Mobile devices, such as cellular phones or wearable devices, can interact with location services such as Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites via a GPS receiver. Data from such a GPS receiver can be requested by an operating system of a mobile device, and can also be requested by third-party applications executed by the mobile device. Likewise, location can be detected via cellular signal triangulation and requested by an operating system or third-party application. Location detection via GPS receiver or cellular signal triangulation typically does not function well indoors or in the vicinity of buildings, structures such as amusement park rides, or trees.
Proximity beacons can better track locations of mobile devices in indoor locations or locations near tall buildings, structures, or trees. Proximity beacons typically broadcast wireless signals that can be detected by nearby mobile devices. Some proximity beacons have hardware necessary for a private network or Internet connection. Proximity beacons with such connectivity hardware may then report directly to an administrator device regarding which mobile devices the proximity beacon detected nearby. Other proximity beacons lack hardware necessary for a private network or Internet connection. Such a proximity beacon typically relies on mobile devices in range of the proximity beacon to report to the administrator device that the proximity beacon was detected by the mobile device.
Proximity beacons typically do not have GPS receivers installed because they are typically built to be as inexpensive and energy-efficient as possible. Thus, each proximity beacon is typically unable to detect its own location. Because of this, administrators must typically manually input a location for the proximity beacon and trust that the proximity beacon is located where they think it is located, and further must trust that the proximity beacon was not accidentally or intentionally moved. Administrators receiving data identifying mobile devices in the proximity of a proximity beacon that has moved, such as a proximity beacon affixed to a moving object, cannot reliably know where those mobile devices actually are. Without being able to reliably locate each proximity beacon, administrators must expend time and energy manually organizing data from their various proximity beacons to understand which data corresponds to which proximity beacon, and where different mobile devices must therefore be, which can be increasingly confusing as the number and density of proximity beacons in the venue increases.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved way of determining proximity beacon locations and managing beacon proximity data.